Best Havana, Cuba Travel Guides
VanDam's best-selling Havana StreetSmart maps all of the capital's cultural attractions, neighborhoods, beaches, hotels, resorts and more at an immensely legible scale. Using his signature StreetSmart series design for printed maps (Internet connections are still scant in Cuba), Mr. VanDam points out Havana s restaurants, hotels, resorts and the home-based restaurants known as paladares and offers five self-guided tours that wind through the city s many plazas to contemporary galleries, music venues and gardens, along the Malecón coastal road and as far as the beaches of Playas de Este. "In Cuba, Maps Make a Comeback" by Steve Heller Old-fashioned navigation is enjoying a renaissance on the island, where Internet access is still scant. When Stephan Van Dam began designing two detailed tourist maps of Cuba in 2014, he couldn t have known that one year later, the prospect of renewed relations between the country and the U.S. could effectively create a whole new market for them. Walking Havana from one end to the other gave Van Dam a sense of the urban fabric, which is, by his description, frozen in time and brimming with period-specific architectural jewels buildings that reflect Plateresque, Cuban baroque, Neoclassical, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, Mid-century modern, and Soviet Brutalist architectures. With the prospect of sanctions being lifted in the near future, Van Dam is already planning more Cuba projects across new media, starting with a website mapping the influence of the clave, an instrument that figures widely in Cuban music, around the world. With Internet coverage at a scant 5 percent across the country and download speeds reminiscent of the pre-dial-up era, Cuba doesn t yet have the digital infrastructure to support cell phone cartography. Which leaves room for a handy paper copy renaissance: This is a fleeting moment, Van Damm notes, when the trusty laminated map trumps Google views.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I loved that I could fold this map up and keep it in my back pocket."
"great little map."
"The map has the majority of the places you'r probably going to check out, and for the few that weren't on there it's easy enough to drop a mark with a sharpie."
"Used it all over Havana, very useful and nice museum suggestions."
"Lent it to a friend for her trip after we got back."
"Nothing special just a decent street map of Havana that gives you a good over view of what the city is laid out like."
"This is gold if traveling to Cuba and want to see the real Cuba!!"
"Good detail."
UPDATED 2018 EDITION WITH BONUS TRINIDAD CITY GUIDE. Real Havana is the #1 selling guide to experiencing the authentic Cuba. The Real Havana guide shows you how to do all that and lots more. As a special bonus, this book also includes a Trinidad city guide Trinidad is one of the most popular excursions for foreigners visiting Cuba. This book is not a "tourist guide" . Full Compass Guides are aimed at travelers who want to understand local customs and culture so that they can experience destinations like a local. Unlike regular tourist guides, Full Compass guides are not a list of attractions popular with tourists, and boring restaurant and hotel reviews that are obsolete the moment they are published. With our guides, you get succinct, useful information about the culture, people and geography of your destination so you have the tools and the confidence to explore on your own, experience everything that your destination has to offer. With a Full Compass guide, you will be a knowledgeable explorer, rather than just another flash-happy tourist. One of the things he find most interesting about Cuba is that it has a pervasive entrepreneurial spirit in spite of years of communism To learn more about Mario Rizzi and to follow his blog updates on Havana and Cuba, please visit the website www.BestCubaGuide.com Mario is an avid traveler and his most important goal is to familiarize himself with the culture of a country so that he can explore it like a local would, rather than as a tourist.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Great book, lots of information on local transportation, meals, buildings, money and currency conversion, etc."
"Good read, before I went to Cuba I was tempted to give it 5 stars but then when I was there I realized that the lack of structure made it hard to use for planing."
"Lots of helpful tips as I read it on the plane."
"Very helpful during our trip to Havana."
"I look forward to any other books you write on Cuba."
"Great tips, easy read, up to date."
"Probably the most useful travel guide I read for traveling to Havana."
"Lots of good info here for first time Cuban travelers."
Opening on the eve of the announcement of reconciliation between the U.S. and Cuba, the book then looks back at the cultural, political, economic, and religious influences that led up to this historic moment and beyond. Examining all things Cubania--racial issues, la revolución , baseball, Hemingway, communism, synagogues, Santeria, Cimarron culture, and much more--Portocarero overturns every stone in his endeavor to bring us inside the city he loves. “Passionate and provocative, Havana Without Makeup provides an uncommonly insightful and empathetic portrait of a city, country, and people steeped in eroticism, eccentricity and enigma.” Christopher P. Baker , author of Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro’s Cuba and the National Geographic Traveler Cuba and Moon Cuba guidebooks. "There are many writers who think they know the city of Havana.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This enchanting love affair is presented to the reader through 87 vignettes , varying , amongst many others, from neighbourhood walking tours, introductions to Santeria, insights into the problems of writers critical of the "system" (Padura and Gutierrez) , and of course politics.Portocarero's views , where it concerns politics, are unsentimental , maybe surprisingly so for a '68 European intellectual, but then he has never been a follower of political correctness. Chapter 33 " The cave at the end of the world" tells us of Che during the 1962 missile crisis : "the people will march unafraid into the nuclear holocaust, as the final redemption of the just"."
"This book is a history, a memoir, a travel guide, an homage, a work of sociology, and an insightful piece of political reporting. As you might expect from an armchair traveler with an interest in Cuba, I was most drawn to the social and cultural aspects of the story, (and less invested in topics like black market currency manipulation). Portocarero is particularly adept at sketching in the big picture - the African roots of Cuban society, the reality behind Santeria, the modern history of the revolucion. Our author is willing to point out and address failings and weaknesses as well as successes, and one ends up with the impression that one has gotten a fairly balanced, if forgiving, picture of modern Cuba. The tone is amiable and confiding, and it feels a bit like what you might hear over a rum and Coke from an experienced campaigner and diplomat with a flair for the telling anecdote, (which, apparently, is exactly who Portocarero is)."
"This writer has made me remember and learn things about the Cuban history that I didn’t knew."
"Amazingly well written with a passion and grit that is truly a word picture representing the real Havana."
"This book answers my feelings."
"Despite the fact that the author does a serviceable job, I must say if you have to read one recent book about Havana, it ought to be Mark Kurlansky's Havana: A Subtropical Delirium, which makes a much better connection with people living and working in Havana."
"Great intro to Havana ..."
Best General Cuba Travel Guides
Interwoven with descriptions of Hokule'a's experiences in port are the voices of the master navigators and crew members, who guide the ship along the ocean's trackless path using only stars, birds, wind, and seas -- non-instrumental wayfinding techniques-- and the local pioneers -- scientists, teachers, and children touched by Hokule'a' -- who work tirelessly to weather the many environmental challenges in our modern lives. “Malama Honua: Hokule'a - A Voyage Of Hope is a luxurious and content-rich hardcover book that will inspire Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians to explore the enchantments of nature, through one of the ultimate symbols of Polynesian culture.” ―Surfer Today.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The size, feel, weight, and even the magical endpapers all add to the luscious presentation of this important, timely and captivating book. Malama honua means “care for Mother Earth,” and in the midst of this great adventure story, we learn about inspiring projects as vast as American Samoa’s struggle to eliminate plastics, as ambitious as Cuba’s Agro-ecology program, as critical as the Giant Tortoise restoration in the Galapagos, as energizing as the Billion Oysters Project in New York. Hokule’a is a needle sewing a lei of flowers around the world as an act of peace… and that is why we sail.”. A colleague and I intend to use this book in the university and elementary school, where we teach, to remind our students that there is a bigger, brighter horizon in front of them... more alluring than the world they squint at on small screens in the palms of their hands. They deserve to hear this epic story and imagine what it would be like to look up to the stars to guide them. This review doesn't scratch the surface of all this book offers."
"The crew member stories are rich and reflect the values learned through voyaging, while the compelling images tell their own incredible stories."